Across Asia, corruption and slavery form bitter web

But shocking images of men and children padlocked and brutalized in stifling brickworks have shown that even in this officially socialist nation, where workers are supposed to rule, slavery has secured a niche in the galloping market economy.

If, nearly six decades after the communist revolution, China can sustain even small-scale slavery, what of other parts of Asia where forced labor has deep roots that have long defied rights campaigns?

Observers of workers trapped in forced labor say economic growth does not necessarily spell the end of slavery, and small brick-makers across Asia often exploit trapped labour.

"The number-one predictor is corruption," said Kevin Bales, an expert on the problem who is president of Free the Slaves, a Washington D.C.-based group.

"You can certainly see economic growth and slavery going hand in hand when that primary criterion of corruption is there."

In north China's Shanxi province, the centre of the national scandal, witnesses said paying off officials was normal in this region dotted with small coal mines and belching factories.

CORRUPTION RULES

Bales, who has studied slavery in brickworks across Pakistan and India, said a similar brew of bribery and lax law enforcement also lubricated the grim business there.

More than three-quarters of the world's estimated 12.3 million forced laborers are in Asia and the Pacific, where 9.5 million people are trapped by debt bondage, trafficking and other coercion, the International labor Organization estimates. Bales has estimated the global slave workforce at about 27 million.